p 

<* 

h 


-J 


CD 


AN 


ADDRESS 


DELIVERED     AT      NEW      HAVEN, 


BEFORE    THE 


PHI    BETA    KAPPA    SOCIETY, 


SEPTEMBER    13,    1831 


BY    JAMES  .KENT. 


NEW    HAVEN: 

PRINTED    BY    HEZEKIAH    HOWE. 
1831. 


»•%:•••<* 


72 


J 


PUBLISHED  AT  THE  REQUEST  OF  THE  *  B  K  SOCIETY. 


ADDRESS 


Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen, 

It  is  fifty  years  since  I  had  the  honor  to  address  a 
large  and  polished  assembly  from  this  place.  In  recall- 
ing that  event,  unimportant  to  others,  but  to  me  deeply 
interesting,  I  am  reminded  of  my  rapid  transit  from  the 
morning  to  the  evening  of  life;  and  as  my  health  has 
been  uniformly  preserved,  and  my  public  duties  such  as 
I  could  safely  and  agreeably  perform,  I  have,  on  my 
own  account  as  well  as  on  that  of  others,  abundant  cause 
of  gratitude  to  God  for  his  goodness. 

The  Phi  Beta  Kappa  society,  appertaining  to  Yale 
College,  was  instituted  in  November,  1780,  and  a  num- 
ber of  my  collegiate  class  (and  of  which  number  I  had 
the  honor  to  be  one,)  were  chosen  its  original  members. 
Here  again  recollections  occur  of  no  common  force, 
and  it  would  be  difficult  for  any  person,  who  had  receiv- 
ed his  classical  education  at  this  seminary,  and  whose 
heart  is  capable  of  being  swayed  by  the  ordinary  sym- 
pathies of  our  nature,  not  to  partake  in  some  degree  of 
the  inspiration  of  the  time  and  place.  These  circum- 
stances naturally  led  me  to  the  train  of  reflections  which 
I  shall  now  respectfully  submit,  and  they  have  arisen 
out  of  the  historical  associations  that  this  day  awa- 
kens. The  annals  of  the  state  and  of  the  college,  con- 
tain a  striking  specimen,  of  the  beneficial  influence 
which  the  studies  and  discipline  of  such  a  literary  in- 
stitution, are  calculated  to  have  upon  the  morals  and 

M219171 


.    .     V    . 


*  4   »     »         V  .>    •    •  -  >• 

•::     -f,-. 

manners,  the  intelligence  and  public  spirit  of  the  com- 
munity.* 

The  establishment  of  Yale  College  formed  an  era  of 
great  moment  in  the  history  of  the  colony.  The  object 
was  to  diffuse  the  light  of  knowledge,  and  by  a  steady 
and  permanent  influence,  to  lead  young  men  to  the  paths 
of  wisdom  and  virtue.  The  scheme  of  a  literary  institu- 
tion to  be  located  in  New  Haven,  was  placed  before  the 
Legislature  of  the  New  Haven  Colony  in  1652 ;  and 
again  in  1660,  by  the  Reverend  John  Davenport,  who 
took  a  noble  share  in  the  effort,  and  this  town  made  a 
liberal  donation  in  aid  of  the  measure.t  Mr.  Daven- 
port was  an  Oxford  graduate,  and  eminent,  even  among 
the  eminent  puritans  of  his  time,  as  a  scholar  and  a  di- 
vine, and  he  was  distinguished  for  the  strictness  of  his 
discipline,  and  for  the  most  active  and  intrepid  perform- 
ance of  his  duties.}  He  observed  that  the  college  was 
intended  for  the  education  of  youth  in  good  literature, 
and  to  fit  them  for  public  services  in  church  and  com- 
monwealth. The  proposed  plan  of  a  college  did  not  at 
that  time  succeed,  and  it  was  revived  under  more  fa- 


*  The  material  facts  concerning  Yale  College  were  taken  from 
President  Clap's  History  of  Yale  College,  published  in  1760;  and 
from  the  continuation  of  those  brief  annals,  in  the  appendix  to  Doc- 
tor Holmes's  Life  of  President  Stiles.  A  few  days  previous  to  the 
delivery  of  this  address,  and  after  it  was  prepared,  a  new  and  large 
work  appeared,  entitled  Annals  of  Yale  College,  by  Ebenezer  Bald- 
win, Esq. ;  and  that  work  gives  a  full  account  of  the  existing  state 
of  the  College,  and  is  written  with  judgment,  fidelity,  and  proper 
feeling. 

t  Trumbull's  Hist,  of  Conn.  Vol.  I.  30.5,  Appen.  No.  21  ;  Duigkt's 
Travels,  Vol.  I.  200. 

t  Mather's  Magnalia,  Vol.  I.  292—1301. 


vorable  auspices  in  1698,  and  the  effort  resulted  in  the 
charter  of  1701.  The  object,  in  1698,  was  to  found 
a  seminary  for  the  education  of  young  men  fitted  for 
the  work  of  the  gospel  ministry,  and  it  was  to  be  call- 
ed the  school  of  the  church.  But  the  charter  was 
formed  upon  a  broader  foundation,  and  with  more 
extensive  views.  It  instituted  "a  collegiate  school, 
wherein  youth  might  be  instructed  in  the  arts  and  sci- 
ences, and  fitted  for  public  employment  both  in  church 
and  civil  state  ;"  and  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  college 
trustees,  they  felt  and  displayed  the  enlarged  spirit  of 
the  instrument,  and  resolved  that  in  the  college  should 
be  taught  "  the  liberal  arts  and  languages."  The  cere- 
mony of  founding  this  college,  by  ten  of  the  principal 
ministers  of  the  gospel  in  the  colony,  and  who  were  its 
first  trustees,  was  simple  and  interesting.  When  assem- 
bled for  the  purpose,  each  person  with  a  number  of  se- 
lect and  ponderous  volumes  in  his  arms,  placed  them  on 
a  table,  and  declared  that  he  gave  those  hooks  for  the 
founding  of  a  college  in  the  colony.  Those  select 
treasures  of  knowledge  answered  the  purpose  of  corner 
stones  in  the  foundation  of  this  fabric  of  science,  and 
if  the  learning  they  contained  should  at  this  day  be 
deemed  uninteresting,  or  their  style  repulsive,  yet,  as 
the  volumes  were  dedicated  to  the  noblest  of  purposes, 
and  on  an  altar  of  primeval  simplicity,  they  became  de- 
served objects  of  the  respect  and  curiosity  of  a  grate- 
ful posterity.  One  of  these  trustees,  the  Reverend 
Abraham  Pierson,  was  an  accomplished  scholar,  and 
the  first  rector  of  the  college;  and  all  of  them  appear 
to  have  been  learned  and  pious  men,  distinguished  for 
comprehensiveness  of  views,  and  energy  of  purpose. 
With  what  emotions  of  gratitude  would  those  venerable 


6 

men  have  contemplated  the  fruits  of  their  zeal,  if  they 
could  have  anticipated,  in  prophetic  vision,  the  future 
prosperity  and  renown  of  this  institution.  The  college 
commenced  its  career  with  a  little  flock  of  less  than  a 
dozen  scholars,  and  yet,  from  a  temple  of  knowledge  so 
retired  in  its  origin,  and  so  humble  in  its  pretensions, 
there  have  have  issued  near  five  thousand  students,  who 
have  been  crowned  with  academic  honors.  Those  sons 
of  science  have  been  dispersed  over  every  part  of  our 
country,  and  they  have  made  useful  and  splendid  dis- 
coveries in  the  mechanic  arts,  and  sustained  themselves 
with  honor  and  credit  in  professional  life,  and  in  every 
department  of  public  duty.  They  have  illustrated  the 
old,  and  illuminated  the  dark  recesses  of  the  new 
branches  of  science.  They  have  equally  adorned  the 
history  of  their  country  by  their  genius  in  the  arts  of 
peace,  and  by  their  conduct  and  courage  in  the  exigen- 
cies of  war.  Many  of  the  departed  alumni  of  this 
college  have  afforded  signal  aid  and  illustrious  services, 
in  laying  the  foundations,  and  raising  the  lofty  struc- 
ture of  our  national  greatness. 

The  character  and  disposition  of  the  first  inhabitants 
of  the  colony,  and  the  progress  of  their  institutions  and 
improvements,  down  to  the  beginning  of  this  college, 
were  closely  connected  with  its  future  fortunes. 

The  interests  of  education  had  engaged  the  attention 
of  the  New  England  colonists  from  the  earliest  settle- 
ment of  the  country ;  and  the  system  of  common  and 
grammar  schools,  and  of  academical  and  collegiate  in- 
struction, was  interwoven  with  the  primitive  views  and 
institutions  of  the  Puritans.  Every  thing  in  their  ge- 
nius and  disposition  was  favorable  to  the  growth  of 
freedom  Und  learning,  but  with  a  tendency  to  stern  reg- 


illations  for  the  maintenance  of  civil  and  religious  or- 
der. They  were  a  grave  and  thinking  people,  of  much 
energy  of  character,  and  of  lofty  and  determined  pur- 
pose. Religion  was  with  them  a  deep  and  powerful 
sentiment,  and  of  absorbing  interest.  The  first  emi- 
grants had  studied  the  oracles  of  truth  as  a  text  book, 
and  they  were  profoundly  affected  by  the  unqualified 
commands,  the  awful  sanctions,  and  the  sublime  views, 
and  animating  hopes  and  consolations  which  accom- 
panied the  revelation  of  life  and  immortality.  They 
were  familiar  with  the  rich  treasures  of  human  learning, 
and  especially  with  the  classical  remains  of  the  an- 
cients. Their  minds  were  strengthened  and  enlarged 
by  observation  and  travel,  and  their  zeal  was  inflamed 
and  their  views  directed  by  the  unconquerable  spirit  of 
civil  and  religious  freedom.  The  persecutions  which 
they  suffered  in  England  under  the  tyranny  of  the  ec- 
clesiastical tribunals,  communicated  a  lasting  impulse 
to  their  minds,  and  exasperated  their  temper.  It  ren- 
dered them  intrepid  enemies  of  popery  and  arbitrary 
power,  and  even  hostile  to  episcopal  worship  and  au- 
thority. They  had  become  republicans  in  their  political 
creed,  and  severe  and  intolerant  in  their  religious  prin- 
ciples. The  avowed  object  of  their  emigration  to  New 
England,  was  to  enjoy  and  propagate  the  reformed  prot- 
ectant faith,  in  the  purity  of  its  discipline  and  worship. 
They  intended  to  found  republics  on  the  basis  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  to  secure  religious  liberty  under  the  auspi- 
ces of  a  commonwealth.  With  this  primary  view  they 
were  early  led  to  make  strict  provision  for  common 
school  education,  and  the  religious  instruction  of  the 
people.  But  they  established  a  severe  and  uncomprom- 
ising discipline  in  church  and  state,  and  their  jurispru- 


8 

dence,  in  criminal  matters,  was  exceedingly  harsh,  and 
it  would  be  intolerable  at  the  present  day.  They  ex- 
tended their  injunctions,  and  severe  penal  animadver- 
sion to  numerous  breaches  of  the  moral  law,  not  now 
deemed  fitly  within  the  cognizance  of  human  laws.* 

The  first  settlers  of  Connecticut  came  from  Massa- 
chusetts in  1635,  and  they  were  men  of  property  and 
education,  and  among  the  most  pious,  discreet  and  in- 
telligent of  the  Puritans.  In  1638,  the  Constitution  of 
Connecticut  was  formed  by  a  voluntary  association  of 
the  free  planters  in  Windsor,  Hartford  and  Wethers- 
field,  and  it  was  the  model  of  as  pure  and  perfect  a  de- 
mocracy as  had  ever  before  subsisted  among  civilized 
men.  All  the  public  authorities  rested  upon  the  basis 
of  annual  elections,  exercised  by  ballot,  by  the  whole 
body  of  the  freemen.  The  tendency  of  universal  suf- 
frage to  abuse,  was  checked  by  the  provision  for  a  pre- 
vious nomination  of  candidates  for  office.  The  General 
Assembly  was  composed  of  deputies  from  the  several 
towns,  and  the  House  consisted  at  first  of  only  twelve 
members.  But  that  small  body  of  men  gave  evidence 
of  vast  compass  of  thought,  and  they  were  found  ade- 
quate to  the  purposes  of  government,  and  thoroughly 
instructed  in  the  knowledge  of  the  provisions  requisite 
for  the  security  of  the  natural  rights  of  mankind. 
Their  first  act  was  a  declaratory  bill  of  rights,  in  which 
it  was  ordained  that  no  man  should  be  deprived  of  his 
life,  or  honor,  or  good  name,  or  personal  liberty,  or 
wife,  or  children,  or  goods,  or  estate,  unless  by  authori- 


*  Abstract  of  Cotton's  laws  of  New  England,  in  the  Massachu- 
setts Hist.  Collec.  Vol.  V.  p.  182.  Trumbull's  Hist  Vol.  I.  pp. 
183,  233. 


9 

ty  of  some  express  and  duly  published  law  of  the  Colony, 
and  in  default  thereof  by  some  plain  rule  of  the  word 
of  God.*  The  latter  part  of  this  provision  undoubted- 
ly left  the  rights  of  the  people  upon  too  vague  a  tenure, 
but  it  is  to  be  considered  in  explanation  of  such  a  pro- 
vision, that  the  word  of  God  was  at  that  time  almost 
the  sole  object  of  their  solicitude  and  studies,  and  that 
the  principal  design  in  planting  themselves  on  the  banks 
of  the  Connecticut,  was  to  preserve  the  liberty  and  pu- 
rity of  the  gospel.  This  latitudinary  provision  was  not, 
in  point  of  fact,  resorted  to,  and  the  civil  code  soon  be- 
came amply  sufficient.  And  who  can  withhold  from 
this  first  and  feeble  band  of  colonists,  the  unfeigned  tri- 
bute of  honor  and  gratitude,  for  turning  their  earliest 
attention,  even  in  the  midst  of  the  wilderness  and  be- 
yond the  then  confines  of  the  civilized  world,  to  such  a 
precise  and  lucid  exposition  of  the  principles  of  civil 
liberty?  They  were  so  fortunate  as  to  enjoy  the  pres- 
ence and  guide  of  one  man,  who  had  been  early  initia- 
ted in  English  university  learning,  and  proved  to  be  one 
of  those  superior  and  decided  characters,  competent  to 
give  a  permanent  direction  to  human  affairs.  No  sage 
of  antiquity  was  superior  to  him  in  wisdom,  moderation 
and  firmness ;  none  equal  to  him  in  the  grandeur  of  his 
moral  character  and  the  elevation  of  his  devotion.  This 
learned  audience  will  have  perceived  that  I  allude  to 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker,  whom  his  distinguished  bio- 
grapher has  termed  the  light  of  the  Western  churches 
and  oracle  of  the  Connecticut  colony.^ 


*  Trumbull's  History,  I,  95-98.     App.  to  Vol.  I,  No.  3. 
t  Cotton  Mather's  Maznalia,  Vol.  I,  pp.  303-319.     He  is  worthy 
of  the  title  of  the  New  England  Plutarch,  by  reason  of  the  facts  and 

2 


10 

The  Colony  of  New  Haven  was  established  shortly 
after  that  of  Connecticut.  The  founders  of  it  were 
Theophilus  Eaton,  John  Davenport,  and  other  English 
emigrants,  generally  distinguished  for  talents,  learning, 
piety,  opulence  and  enterprise.  The  Rev.  John  Daven- 
port preached  his  first  sermon  in  1638,  under  a  large 
and  spreading  oak,  near  the  spot  where  we  are  now  as- 
sembled; and  those  illustrious  pioneers  prescribed  a  lib- 
eral outline  and  beautiful  form  to  this  city,  and  it  has 
been  filled  up  with  equal  taste  and  elegance  by  their 
descendants.  The  Constitution  at  first  established  at 
New  Haven,  like  that  at  Hartford,  was  a  pure  demo- 
cracy. The  colonists  being  without  any  charter  or 
regular  commission  from  England,  formed  themselves 
by  voluntary  compact  into  a  free  commonwealth,  and 
to  secure  the  primary  religious  purpose  of  their  emi- 
gration, they  surpassed  their  brethren  on  the  Connecti- 
cut in  the  severity  of  their  zeal.  They  required  as  a 
test  of  admission  to  the  privileges  of  freemen,  that  all 
burgesses  entitled  to  vote  and  be  voted  for,  be  first  en- 
rolled as  church  members.  The  business  of  civil  gov- 
ernment in  that  age  was  deemed  quite  secondary  to  the 
interests  of  the  visible  church.  The  gathering  of  a 
congregation  was  the  preliminary  and  the  indispensa- 
ble step  to  the  organization  of  a  town,  for  without  a 
church  there  could  be  neither  freemen  nor  magistrates. 


anecdotes  on  which  he  founds  the  characters  of  the  leading  Puritans, 
as  well  as  by  the  vigor  and  coloring  of  many  of  his  graphic  sketches. 
The  objection  to  his  portraits  is  that  he  deals  too  much  in  the  super- 
lative degree,  and  praises  too  promiscuously  without  just  discrimina- 
tion, or  marking  the  various  shades  of  intellectual  and  moral  charac- 
ter of  the  individuals  whom  he  describes. 


11 

In  the  same  spirit,  the  first  General  Assembly  of  the 
Colony  declared  that  the  word  of  God  should  be  the 
only  rule  for  ordering  the  affairs  of  government.*  This 
rigid  and  intolerant  spirit  was  less  to  have  been  expect- 
ed, inasmuch  as  Governor  Eaton  had  been  greatly  hon- 
ored in  Europe,  in  his  civil  employments  and  intercourse 
with  mankind ;  and  New  Haven  was  settled  with  com- 
mercial as  well  as  with  religious  views.  The  Colony  of 
New  Haven,  says  Cotton  Mather,  was  "  constellated 
with  many  stars  of  the  first  magnitude,  and  under  the 
conduct  of  as  holy,  and  as  prudent,  and  as  genteel  per- 
sons, as  most  that  ever  visited  these  nooks  of  America." 
It  is  probable  that  the  early  religious  character  of  the 
colonists  received  an  impression  from  the  doctrine,  dis- 
cipline, and  zeal  of  the  renowned  pastor  of  New  Haven, 
whose  object  and  effort,  according  to  his  biographer, 
was  "to  settle  all  matters,  civil  and  sacred,  by  a  stricter 
conformity  to  the  word  of  God,  than  he  had  seen  exem- 
plified in  any  other  part  of  the  world." 

But  the  judicious  and  happy  consolidation  of  the  gov- 
ernments of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  into  one  col- 
ony, under  the  charter  of  1662,  .gradually  led  to  more 
liberal  and  just  views  of  the  end  and  design  of  civil 
government.  The  Charter  provided  for  a  semi-annual 
General  Assembly,  and  for  a  Governor,  Deputy  Gover- 
nor and  twelve  assistants,  to  be  annually  elected.  It 
was  an  instrument  of  extraordinary  liberality,  consider- 
ing the  source  from  which  it  came,  and  though  a  royal 
charter,  it  constituted  Connecticut  a  complete  republic 
in  every  thing  but  in  name.     The  Colony  continued, 


■  Trumbull's  History,  Vol.  I,  pp.  99-103,  136,7,  283.     Appendix, 
No.  4.     MazJialia,  Vol.  I.  p.  76. 


12 

even  down  to  the  American  revolution,  to  possess  and 
exhibit  all  the  essential  attributes  of  a  state  entirely 
free  and  independent. 

The  General  Assembly  of  Connecticut,  in  1639,  de- 
fined and  established  the  privileges  of  their  towns,  and 
invested  them  with  corporate  and  civil  powers  of  a  lo- 
cal nature.  The  settlement  of  New  England  in  com- 
pact towns  and  villages  was  made  in  the  first  instance 
for  safety  against  the  incursions  of  the  Indians,  and  for 
the  accommodation  of  the  inhabitants  in  respect  to  pub- 
lic worship  and  the  maintenance  of  schools.  In  the  ab- 
stract of  the  laws  of  New  England,  a  hard  code  com- 
piled by  the  Rev.  John  Cotton  and  printed  in  1641,  it 
was  ordained  that  no  man  should  set  his  dwelling  house 
"above  the  distance  of  half  a  mile,  or  a  mile  at  the  far- 
therest,  from  the  meeting  house  of  the  congregation."* 
The  law  it  is  said  was  never  legally  enforced,  but  the 
beautiful  towns  and  villages  which  adorn  every  part  of 
the  country,  and  shed  a  bright  and  cheering  moral  as- 
pect to  its  landscape,  show  the  early  and  universal  at- 
tachment to  this  policy.  It  was  well  adapted  to  pro- 
mote order  and  facilitate  intercourse,  and  appears  to 
great  advantage  when  placed  in  contrast  with  the  sparse 
locations  of  planters  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  where 
each  individual  resides  in  stately  and  unsocial  seclusion 
on  his  own  farm.  This  New  England  mode  of  settle- 
ment has  had  a  strong  and  lasting  influence  on  the  man- 
ners and  character  of  the  inhabitants.  It  has  contribu- 
ted to  render  them  lively,  inquisitive,  social,  humane, 
orderly  and  religious.  Associations  for  the  noblest  and 
most  instructive  purposes  are  easily  formed  and  sus- 

*  Hutchinson's  State  Papers,  p.  168. 


13 

tained.  There  is  also  in  young  minds,  which  are  nat- 
urally sprightly  and  fond  of  romantic  fiction,  a  charm 
in  familiar  and  playful  village  associations,  which  soft- 
ens the  temper,  civilizes  the  manners,  and  gives  ardor 
and  strength  to  the  afFections.  The  fictitious  narrative, 
"  the  Woodman's  Ballad,"  the  song  and  the  dance,  the 
natural,  if  not  the  appropriate  amusements  of  many  a 
winter's  evening  in  early  life,  spread  the  vision  of  en- 
chantment over  the  mellowed  recollections  of  such  pe- 
riods: over  those 

"Dear  lovely  bowers  of  innocence  and  ease, 

Seats  of  our  youth,  when  every  sport  could  please." 

The  equity  of  the  first  emigrants  in  their  dealings 
with  the  natives  of  the  country,  is  another  circumstance 
that  deserves  a  special  and  honorable  notice.  The  In- 
dians in  Connecticut  are  supposed  to  have  exceeded 
twenty  thousand,  when  the  state  was  first  colonized  ;# 
and  the  question  as  to  Indian  rights  and  titles,  must 
have  presented  itself  to  our  ancestors  as  one  deserving 
of  very  grave  consideration. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Bulkley  of  Colchester  in  this  state, 
upwards  of  a  century  ago,  wrote  an  able  essay t  to  prove 
that  the  Indians  had  not  by  the  law  of  nature  any  title 
to  the  soil,  except  so  far  as  they  had  actually  settled 
upon  it,  and  subdued  it  by  their  labor;  and  he  contend- 
ed that  the  country  not  so  occupied,  was  justly  open  to 
the  civilized  emigrants  from  Europe.  This  at  the  time 
was  not  an  uncommon  theory  with  the  Puritans.  Their 
projected  emigration  from  England  to  Massachusetts, 


*  Trumbull's  History,  Vol.  T,  p.  27. 

t  Massachusetts  Historical  Collections,  Vol.  IV,  p.  160. 


14 

was  originally  urged  upon  them  while  in  England,  on 
vague  suggestions  of  a  common  right,  as  sons  of  Adam, 
to  enter  upon  and  cultivate  the  waste  parts  of  this  con- 
tinent.* Even  the  learned  Cotton  Mather  placed  the 
general  purchase  of  Indian  titles  upon  the  ground  of 
civility,  and  he  referred  to  King  James's  Patent  for  the 
better  title,  and  that  Patent  was  evidently  founded  on 
the  same  assumptions  of  right.  It  is  happy  for  this 
country  that  the  governments  and  settlers  did  not,  in 
point  of  fact,  rest  their  conduct  upon  these  abstract 
speculations,  however  plausible  they  may  be  in  appear- 
ance or  difficult  in  discussion.  They  respected  Indian 
rights  and  titles  from  motives  of  policy  if  not  from  a 
sense  of  justice,  and  with  the  exception  of  parts  of  the 
Pequot  country,  which  was  procured  by  conquest  in 
war,  the  inhabitants  of  Connecticut,  as  well  as  of  the 
other  colonies,  uniformly  acquired  their  lands  from  the 
natives  by  fair  purchased  When  Indian  rights  and 
territories  have  been  defined  and  acknowledged  by  the 
whites  by  treaty,  or  where  the  Indians  have  formed 
themselves  into  regular  organized  governments  within 
prescribed  limits,  there  would  seem  to  be  no  question 
as  to  the  superiority  of  their  title.  But  so  far  as  they 
have  remained  roving  savages  of  the  forest,  it  is  not  at 
all  surprising  that  our  ancestors  should  have  not  felt 
much  respect  for  their  loose  and  attenuated  dominion 
over  the  soil  of  the  country ;  and  that  they  should  have 
deemed  it  to  be  unreasonable,  and  a  perversion  of  the 
duties  and  design  of  the  human  race,  to  allow  the  In- 


*  Hutchinson's  State  Papers,  p.  27.     Boston:  1769. 
t  Trumbull's  History,  Vol.  I,  passim.     DwighVs  Travels,  Vol.  X, 
p.  167. 


IS 

dians  to  retain  this  continent  entirely  to  themselves, 
and  to  suffer  it  to  remain,  as  hunting  grounds,  a  savage 
and  frightful  desert.  It  is  certainly  not  now  any  cause 
of  regret  that  the  red  men  of  the  forest  have,  in  the 
course  of  Providence,  been  supplanted  by  a  much  no- 
bler race  of  beings  of  European  blood.  The  rapid 
conversion  of  the  interminable  forests  of  this  continent 
into  a  cultivated,  civilized  and  powerful  empire,  filled 
with  men  and  wealth,  and  laws  and  learning,  and  liber- 
ty and  religion,  is  the  most  wonderful  and  glorious  event 
in  the  annals  of  mankind.  The  territory  now  compri- 
sing these  United  States  owes  its  cultivation,  and  all 
the  intellectual,  moral  and  great  physical  achievements 
which  have  been  performed  upon  its  surface,  to  the 
white  race  of  men.  Wherever  European  Christians 
have  spread  themselves  over  this  country,  they  have  at 
once  fulfilled  their  original  destiny,  which  was  to  sub- 
due the  earth,  and  till  the  ground  from  whence  they 
were  taken.  They  have  carried  with  them  the  insti- 
tutions of  private  property  and  of  marriage,  the  great 
foundation  of  all  civilization  and  order.  They  have 
formed  societies  civil  and  religious,  established  govern- 
ments, ordained  laws,  cultivated  commerce,  patronised 
science  and  the  liberal  arts,  and  carried  to  exalted 
heights  the  blessings  of  civil  and  religious  freedom. 
Wherever  they  have  penetrated  into  the  interior  of  this 
continent,  they  have  exhibited,  as  emblems  of  civiliza- 
tion, the  implements  of  husbandry  and  the  arts,  the  axe, 
the  plough,  the  forge  and  the  loom,  and  the  still  nobler 
marks  of  moral  improvement,  the  school  house,  and  the 
tall  spire  directing  the  heart  to  the  skies. 

We  meet  with  the  system  of  common  schools,  for 
teaching  the  elements  of  knowledge,  in  the  earliest  of 


16 

the  colonial  records.  Strict  and  accurate  provision 
was  made  by  law  for  the  support  of  schools  in  each 
town,  and  a  grammar  school  in  each  county ;  and  even 
family  instruction  was  placed  under  the  vigilant  super- 
vision of  the  select  men  of  the  town.  Several  statute 
provisions  for  the  better  support  of  schools  were  made 
between  the  years  1650  and  1700.*  This  system  of 
free  schools,  sustained  and  enforced  by  law,  has  been 
attended  with  momentous  results,  and  it  has  communi- 
cated to  the  people  of  this  state,  and  to  every  other  part 
of  New  England  in  which  the  system  has  prevailed,  the 
blessings  of  order  and  security,  to  an  extent  never  be- 
fore surpassed  in  the  annals  of  mankind. 

The  statute  laws  of  Connecticut  were  printed  in 
1672,  and  reduced  to  a  small  and  compact  form  fitted 
for  family  use,  and  it  was  provided  by  law  that  every 
family  should  have  a  copy  of  them.t  This  was  similar 
in  the  benevolence  of  the  design  to  the  provision  of 
William  Penn,  that  the  laws  of  Pennsylvania  should 
be  printed  and  taught  in  the  schools.^  The  General 
Assembly  of  Connecticut,  in  1683,  recommended  to  the 
clergy  of  the  Colony,  to  interrogate  and  instruct  all  the 
youth  of  their  respective  congregations,  upon  the  Lord's 
day,  in  some  orthodox  catechism.  This  interesting  fact 
naturally  reminds  us  of  the  institution  of  Sunday  schools, 
of  which  it  may  be  considered  as  the  forerunner,  and 
which  form  such  an  important  branch  of  the  charitable 
foundations  which  distinguish  the  present  age.     The 


*  TrumbulVs  History,  Vol.  I,  p.  303.     North  American  Review, 
N.  S.  Vol.  VII,  p.  380-382. 
t  Trumbull,  Vol.  I,  p.  338. 
X  Proud's  History,  Vol.  I,  p.  208. 


17 

government  always  regarded  the  maintenance  of  public 
worship  as  essential  to  the  well-being  of  society,  and 
with  that  view  provision  was  made  by  law,  in  the  ear- 
liest periods  of  the  Colony,  for  the  support  of  the  clergy 
and  attendance  on  religious  worship.*  Afterwards,  in 
1706,  and  with  the  same  view,  the  estates  and  polls  of 
the  ministers  of  the  Gospel  were  exempted  from  taxa- 
tion. Nor  were  the  clergy  wanting  in  zealous  and  ju- 
dicious efforts  to  render  themselves  worthy  of  the  pub- 
lic respect  and  reverence,  by  preserving  the  learning, 
purity,  discipline  and  faith  of  their  fathers.  At  a  gen- 
eral association  of  ministers  as  early  as  1712,  an  ele- 
vated standard  of  qualifications  for  the  sacred  desk  was 
recommended,  with  the  laudable  view  of  preserving  in 
the  churches  a  learned,  as  well  as  orthodox  and  pious 
ministry.  It  was,  among  other  things,  proposed  that 
the  candidates  should  give  satisfactory  evidence  of  their 
skill  in  the  Hebrew,  Greek  and  Latin  tongues.t 

Such  was  the  policy,  and  such  the  institutions  of  the 
settlers  of  Connecticut,  and  which  went  to  form  and  dis- 
play their  early  national  character.  Their  attention  to 
public  instruction,  civil  and  religious,  and  their  super- 
intending and  vigilant  care  of  the  morals  and  habits 
of  the  people,  were  doubtless  the  principal  means,  un- 
der Providence,  of  rendering  the  colony,  in  every  peri- 
od of  its  history,  free,  prosperous,  and  happy.  It  has 
been  distinguished,  above  all  other  communities,  for  the 
orderly,  respectful,  and  obliging  deportment  of  the  in- 
habitants ;  for  their  intelligence,  industry,  and  econo- 
my ;  for  the  purity  and  solidity  of  their  moral  charac- 


•  Trumbull,  Vol.  I,  p.  302.  t  Trumbull,  Vol.  I,  p.  51G. 


18 

ter ;  for  their  religious  profession  and  habits ;  for  the 
dignity  of  their  magistracy,  and  for  unexampled  order 
and  decorum  in  the  administration  of  justice.  The 
discretion  and  probity  which  have  attended  the  election 
of  their  rulers,  and  the  steadiness  with  which  men  in 
power,  and,  deserving  of  the  trust,  have  been  kept  in 
power,  even  by  means  of  annual  elections,  and  in  spite 
of  the  temptations  to  change  which  such  elections  pre- 
sent, is  a  singular  fact  in  the  history  of  civil  society, 
and  most  honorable  to  the  character  of  the  state.  If 
in  our  day  there  have  been  some  innovations  upon  the 
principle,  it  was  because  party  spirit  is  a  sorceress,  too 
imperious  in  her  commands,  or  too  tempting  in  her  ad- 
dresses, for  frail  mortals,  at  all  times,  to  resist  her. 
The  people  of  this  state  appear  to  have  preserved  their 
original  manners  and  character  more  entire  than  most 
Other  people,  and  in  a  remarkable  degree  considering 
their  enterprizing  and  commercial  disposition.  Their 
young  men  have  explored  our  infant  settlements,  and 
penetrated  the  western  forests  and  solitudes ;  they  have 
traversed  foreign  lands,  and  visited  the  shores  and 
islands  of  every  sea,  either  in  search  of  new  abodes,  or 
as  the  heralds  of  science  and  religion,  or  the  messen- 
gers of  business  and  commerce.  But  notwithstanding 
their  migratory  spirit,  the  sons  of  Connecticut  have 
never  lost  their  native  attachments ; — "  their  first,  best 
country  ever  is  at  home."  This  is  partly  owing  to  the 
force  of  natural  sentiment,  but  more  especially,  in  their 
case,  is  it  owing  to  the  influence  of  early  education, 
and  to  the  pride,  which  local  institutions  of  so  simple 
and  so  efficient  a  character,  naturally  engenders.  And 
who  indeed  can  resist  the  feelings  which  consecrate  the 
place  where  he  was  born,  the  ground  where  his  ances- 


19 

tors  sleep,  the  hills  and  haunts  lightly  trodden  in  th6 
vehemence  of  youth,  and  above  all  where  stand  the 
classic  halls,  in  which  early  friendships  were  formed, 
and  the  young  mind  was  taught  to  expand  and  admire ! 

We  have  thus  adverted  to  the  history  and  institutions 
of  the  people  of  this  state,  existing  at  the  time  they  had 
the  good  sense  to  found  and  endow  this  college.  It 
was  established  upon  the  broad  foundation  of  teaching 
young  men  the  liberal  arts  and  sciences,  and  of  fitting 
them  for  the  great  duties  of  life.  The  founders  and 
patrons  of  the  college  intended,  by  the  discipline  of  a 
classical  education,  to  give  to  their  pupils  the  vigor  of 
character,  and  the  disposition  of  mind  requisite  to  be- 
come accomplished  men.  They  intended  to  awaken, 
stimulate,  and  expand  the  mental  faculties,  and  render 
the  students  competent  for  the  study  of  the  learned  pro- 
fessions ;  for  practical  usefulness  in  life ;  and  with  hab- 
its of  investigation  fitted  to  examine  the  succession  of 
momentous  revolutions,  political,  moral,  religious,  and 
physical,  which,  in  the  course  of  ages,  have  agitated 
this  globe. 

The  free  and  popular  government,  in  the  midst  of 
which  this  college  was  placed,  naturally  reminded  our 
ancestors  of  the  absolute  necessity  of  a  large,  and  con- 
tinual supply  of  well-educated  men,  of  strong  and  man- 
ly minds,  and  of  sound  and  steady  principles,  to  meet 
and  sustain  the  duties  of  active  life,  and  the  varying 
wants,  and  constant  expansion  of  society.  By  those 
mental  acquisitions,  which  are  the  appropriate  result  of 
the  labor  and  discipline  of  the  schools,  men  are  render- 
ed more  competent  to  relieve  the  oppressed,  judge  the 
fatherless,  and  plead  for  the  widow.  They  are  ena- 
bled to  instruct  the  ignorant,  reclaim  the  vicious,  direct 


20 

the  misguided,  and  by  their  moral  power,  and  intellect- 
ual sagacity,  they  arc  resorted  to  in  times  of  difficulty 
and  distress,  as  sage  and  sure  guardians  of  the  public 
welfare.  In  an  age,  in  which  the  periodical  press  has 
become  immensely  powerful,  whether  for  good  or  for 
evil ;  and  in  a  country  in  which  the  right  of  suffrage 
is  almost  universal,  nothing  can  save  us  from  the  de- 
structive effects  of  such  tremendous  agents,  but  the 
correctness  and  integrity  of  public  opinion.  That  opin- 
ion is  liable  to  be  abused,  deceived,  and  misled,  and  it 
requires  the  constant  efforts  of  wise  and  good  men,  and 
the  force  of  enlarged  education,  to  enlighten  the  public 
judgment,  and  purify  the  public  taste.  The  spirit  of 
the  age  is  at  times  favorable  to  just,  temperate,  and  lib- 
eral improvement,  but  it  is  not  an  unerring  spirit.  It 
is  ardent,  restless,  bold  and  presumptuous,  and  it  is  dis- 
posed to  pay  very  little  reverence  to  the  precepts  of 
philosophy,  and  the  oracles  of  experience  teaching  by 
examples,  and  to  make  no  allowance  for  the  natural  and 
inevitable  infirmities  of  human  nature.  These  obser- 
vations have,  perhaps,  less  application  to  this  state  than 
to  any  other,  and  they  are  far  less  applicable  to  this 
country  than  to  Europe.  But  the  subtleties  of  fraud, 
the  delusions  of  prejudice,  the  allurements  of  ambition, 
the  audacity  of  crime,  and  the  selfishness  and  the  reck- 
lessness of  the  passions  are  active  every  where,  and  po- 
tent in  mischief.  It  is  impossible  to  foresee,  or  prevent 
the  sad  results  which  a  misguided  zeal  for  innovation 
may  lead  to,  when  the  propensities  for  it  have  broken 
loose  from  the  restraints  of  authority,  and  are  swept 
along  by  the  subtle  combination  of  a  few  highly  gifted 
and  ambitious  spirits  wielding  the  political  press.  The 
machinery  which  touches  and  agitates  the  passions,  if 


21 

not  checked  in  the  velocity  of  its  career,  by  the  counter- 
acting forces  of  knowledge  and  virtue,  will  destroy  the 
fairest  monuments  of  the  industry,  the  arts,  the  com- 
merce and  the  wealth  of  ages,  and  heave  from  their 
foundations,  the  best  contrived  fabrics  of  human  policy. 

The  tendency  of  some  modern  theories  of  education 
is  to  depress  the  study  of  ancient  languages  and  lite- 
rature, and  to  raise  up,  in  their  stead,  a  more  exclusive 
devotion  to  the  exact  sciences  and  mechanical  philoso- 
phy. But  this  would  be  to  prefer  the  study  of  the  laws 
of  matter,  to  the  study  of  man  as  an  intellectual,  mor- 
al and  accountable  being.  And  when  we  duly  consid- 
er how  unspeakably  important,  and  how  intensely  in- 
teresting is  the  knowledge  of  our  race,  of  their  history, 
their  governments,  their  laws,  their  duties,  their  lan- 
guages, and  their  final  destiny,  we  shall  not  be  disposed 
to  undervalue  literary  pursuits,  or  to  think  lightly  of 
the  cultivation  of  the  moral  sciences,  and  the  study  of 
the  rights  and  history  of  man  as  a  member  of  civil  so- 
ciety. Nothing  contributes  more  to  elevate  and  adorn 
the  character  of  a  nation,  than  the  refinements  of  taste, 
the  embellishments  of  the  arts,  the  spirit  of  freedom, 
the  love  of  justice,  and  the  study  and  imitation  of  those 
exalted  endowments  and  illustrious  actions,  of  which 
history  furnishes  the  examples,  and  which  "  give  ardor 
to  virtue,  and  confidence  to  truth." 

But  I  wish  not  to  be  misunderstood.  I  entertain  no 
narrow  or  hostile  prejudice  to  a  course  of  scientific  ed- 
ucation. Such  a  course  is  adapted  to  the  wants  and  bu- 
siness of  society,  and  this  college  has  very  wisely  met 
on  that  subject  the  spirit  of  the  times,  and  given  a  more 
extended  and  closer  attention  than  formerly,  to  the  va- 
rious branches  of  the  mathematics  and  of  the  physical 


22 

sciences.  No  one  can  contemplate  without  astonish- 
ment and  admiration,  the  splendid  discoveries  and  im- 
provements which  have  been  made,  even  since  the  be- 
ginning of  the  present  century,  in  astronomy,  electrici- 
ty, chemistry,  mineralogy,  geology  and  the  mechanic 
arts;  nor  will  he  be  destitute  of  a  glow  of  gratitude  for 
the  skillful  and  triumphant  application  of  those  sciences 
to  commercial,  agricultural,  manufacturing  and  domes- 
tic purposes.  They  have  contributed  in  a  wonderful 
degree  to  abridge  labor,  facilitate  intercourse,  accumu- 
late products,  enlarge  commerce,  multiply  the  comforts 
of  life,  and  elevate  the  power  and  character  of  the  na- 
tion. My  only  wish  is  that  science  and  literature,  may 
flourish  in  concert ;  and  the  one  is  not  to  regard  the 
other  as  a  useless  or  dangerous  rival.  They  are  neces- 
sary helps  to  each  other,  and  he  who  deals  constantly 
in  matters  of  fact,  with  strict  method  and  patient  in- 
duction, will  find  his  whole  moral  constitution  to  stand 
greatly  in  need,  from  time  to  time,  of  the  invigorating 
warmth  and  impulse  of  the  creations  of  genius.  The 
college  was  founded  with  the  generous  intention  of 
teaching  in  due  proportion  literature  and  science,  and 
this  is  all  that  we  can  wish  or  ought  to  contend  for.  If 
literature  eloquently  recommends  and  elegantly  adorns 
science,  the  latter  supplies  that  knowledge  of  the  laws 
of  the  visible  creation,  and  of  those  astonishing  combi- 
nations by  which  it  is  directed,  that  imparts  to  litera- 
ture its  highest  dignity.  Science  furnishes  arguments 
and  helps  to  ethics  and  to  some  parts  of  civil  jurispru- 
dence, and  it  supplies  eloquence  and  poetry  with  much 
of  that  beautiful,  affecting,  and  sublime  imagery,  which 
accompanies  them  in  their  most  animated  strains  and 
loftiest  effusions. 


23 

The  acquisition  of  a  new  language  is  like  the  acqui- 
sition of  a  new  mental  power.  During  the  process  of 
acquiring  it,  all  the  faculties  of  the  mind  are  awakened 
into  action,  and  grow  in  strength  and  capacity;  and 
this  mental  discipline  pre-eminently  accompanies  the 
study  of  the  ancient  classics.  The  analysis  of  lan- 
guages is  of  itself  a  matter  of  curious  investigation.  It 
tends  to  unfold  the  progress  of  the  human  intellect,  the 
origin,  migration  and  intermixture  of  nations,  the  affin- 
ity of  languages,  and  the  complicated  combinations  of 
thought  and  sound,  by  means  of  which  language  ad- 
vances to  maturity.  During  the  time  spent  in  the  ac- 
quisition of  the  learned  languages,  the  attention  of  the 
student  is  directed  to  the  purest  classical  writers,  and 
while  he  is  becoming  master  of  the  tongue,  he  is  at  the 
same  time  receiving  his  best  and  most  lasting  impres- 
sions of  the  general  literature  and  beautiful  produc- 
tions of  the  ancients.  The  genius  and  spirit  of  the  au- 
thors whom  he  recites  are  gradually  imbibed.  The 
student  becomes  more  and  more  competent  to  discern 
and  relish  the  refined  laws  of  taste,  and  the  precision 
and  accuracy  of  philosophical  deductions. 

The  ancient  compositions  are  eminent  for  sound 
judgment  and  severe  simplicity.  No  version  can  com- 
municate a  perfectly  adequate  idea  of  the  fire,  force  and 
inspiration  of  the  originals.  We  have  indeed  transla- 
tions of  the  best  Greek  and  Roman  authors,  but  who 
reads  them,  except  for  matters  of  fact  ?  who  is  ever 
found  poring  over  them,  again  and  again,  as  models  of 
composition,  of  good  sense,  of  energy,  of  precision,  of 
pathos,  of  eloquence,  of  matchless  beauty  ?  If  the 
study  of  the  original  languages  of  Greece  and  Rome, 
and  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  ancient  classics,  be 


24 

not  made  an  indispensable  test  of  academical  or  colle- 
giate education,  we  may  be  assured  that  the  best  pro- 
ductions of  antiquity  will  gradually  sink  into  oblivion ; 
and  the  noblest  efforts  of  the  human  understanding,  and 
the  most  finished  literary  models  of  correct  taste,  over 
which  genius  and  sensibility  have  hung  with  wonder 
and  enthusiasm  for  so  many  ages,  would  soon  cease  to 
delight  and  instruct  mankind. 

The  founders  of  this  college  I  consider  therefore  as 
having  acted  most  wisely,  in  making  the  study  of  the 
ancient  languages,  and  with  them  a  familiarity  with 
the  ancient  classics,  one  of  the  professed  objects  of  the 
institution.  And  I  am  happy  in  having  it  in  my  power 
to  observe,  that  the  faculty  of  this  college  and  a  com- 
mittee of  the  corporation,  have  recently  vindicated  the 
use  and  value  of  these  languages,  as  a  branch  of  aca- 
demical learning,  by  Reports  which  have  exhausted  the 
subject,  and  are  masterly  both  in  point  of  argument 
and  style.  Such  vindications  came  from  the  proper 
source,  and  the  character  of  classic  learning  ought 
never  to  be  wounded  by  scholars,  who  owe  their  best 
skill  and  vigor  to  the  literature  which  the  Greek  and 
Roman  languages  contain.  A  contrary  conduct  would 
be  an  ungrateful  return  for  the  teachings  of  the  Gre- 
cian muses.  Yet  it  is  easy  to  perceive  that  the  weap- 
ons which  are  sometimes  most  dextrously  employed  to 
explode  the  study  of  the  ancient  classics,  have  been 
polished  by  attic  wit,  and  sharpened  by  the  hand  that 
once  "tun'd  the  Ausonian  Lyre." 

Nor  is  there  any  reasonable  ground  for  the  sugges- 
tion that  the  classics  are  deleterious  in  their  influence 
upon  the  formation  of  the  mind  and  character,  or  that 
the  study  of  them  is  injurious  to  the  progress  or  relish 


25 

of  christian  truth.  No  proposition  can  be  more  thor- 
oughly refuted  by  universal  experience.  The  most  dis- 
tinguished christian  teachers  have  always  been  the 
most  distinguished  classical  scholars,  and  the  most  zeal- 
ous advocates  for  classical  learning.  The  mythologic- 
al machinery  and  enchanting  fictions  which  pervade 
the  poetical  classics,  have  proved  to  be  quite  as  harm- 
less, if  not  entirely  as  interesting,  as  any  of  the  legen- 
dary lore  or  romantic  adventures,  on  which  the  muse 
of  fiction  has,  in  every  age,  seduced  young  minds  and 
mature  minds  to  dwell  with  rapture.  It  is  in  vain  to 
condemn  fictitious  story,  so  long  as  we  all  remain 
bound  to  the  glens,  and  lakes,  and  highlands  of  Scot- 
land, by  the  spell  of  a  mightier  magician  than  iEschy- 
lus  or  Shakspeare.  Classical  literature  is  the  estab- 
lished standard  throughout  Europe  of  high  intellectual 
and  liberal  attainments.  The  leading  Puritans  of  New 
England,  and  the  great  body  of  the  protestant  clergy 
every  where,  no  less  than  the  fathers  of  the  primitive 
church,  were  scholars  of  the  first  order.  Let  us  take 
as  a  sample  from  among  ten  thousand,  the  Reverend 
John  Cotton,  styled  the  father  and  glory  of  Boston. 
He  was  advanced  in  early  life  by  reason  of  his  great 
learning  as  a  scholar,  to  a  fellowship  in  the  English 
university  of  Cambridge.  His  skill  in  the  Hebrew, 
Greek  and  Latin  languages,  as  well  as  in  texual  divin- 
ity, was  unrivalled.  His  industry  was  extraordinary. 
He  wrote  and  spoke  Latin  with  ease,  and  with  Cicero- 
nian eloquence,  and  yet  can  any  one  doubt  of  his  re- 
ligious zeal  ?  He  was  distinguished  as  a  strict  and  or- 
thodox preacher,  pre-eminent  among  his  contempora- 
ries for  the  sanctity  of  his  character  and  the  fervor  of 
his  devotion.     He  died  as  he  had  lived,  in  the  raptur- 

4 


26 

ous  belief,  that  he  was  immediately  to  join  in  the  joys 
and  worship  of  the  saints  in  glory. 

With  the  objects,  and  amidst  the  people  that  I  have 
thus  described,  Yale  College  commenced  its  career,  and 
its  subsequent  progress  demonstrates  that  it  has  more 
than  fulfilled  the  expectations  of  its  founders.  It  has 
been  continually  growing  in  strength  and  enlarging  the 
public  confidence,  by  the  number  and  character  of  the 
pupils  whom  it  has  annually  sent  forth  into  the  world. 
The  general  utility  and  profuse  blessings  of  the  institu- 
tion, have  rendered  it  equally  the  pride  and  honor  of 
the  State ;  and  I  will  only  detain  this  indulgent  audi- 
ence by  a  rapid  sketch  of  some  prominent  points  and 
views  in  its  history. 

The  public  Commencement  in  1718,  soon  after  the 
college  was  established  in  this  city,  was  conducted  with 
a  solemnity  and  spirit  befitting  the  object  and  the  occa- 
sion. The  civil  magistracy  of  the  colony  contributed  its 
aid  and  influence.  Governor  Saltonstall,  who  had  been 
called  from  the  sacred  ministry  to  the  chair  of  State, 
delivered  a  Latin  oration.  He  was  an  accomplished 
and  liberal  gentleman,  and  the  effort  that  was  then 
made  to  give  character  and  popularity  to  this  infant 
seminary,  was  highly  patriotic,  and  worthy  of  all  praise. 
The  college  was  assisted  from  time  to  time  by  dona- 
tions from  individuals,  who  were  prompted  by  a  gener- 
ous desire  to  promote  the  interests  of  learning.  The 
college  took  its  name  from  a  sense  of  duty  and  grati- 
tude to  Governor  Yale,  who  had  been  a  munificent  ben- 
efactor. He  was  a  native  of  New-Haven,  and  emigra- 
ted early  in  life  to  England,  the  country  of  his  ancest- 
ors, and  where  his  family  had  resided  on  their  Welch 
estates  in  feudal  dignity  for  many  generations.     It  was 


27 

the  destiny  of  Governor  Yale  to  acquire  honors  and  for- 
tune in  India,  to  be  governor  of  Fort  St.  George,  and 
to  be  placed  at  the  head  of  the  East  India  Company. 
But  what  are  such  vain  and  transitory  titles  to  the  glo- 
ry of  having  his  name  emblazoned  on  the  portals  of  this 
college ;  of  having  it  wafted  by  the  sons  of  science  to 
every  region  of  the  globe ;  and  of  having  it  rendered  as 
immortal  as  the  institution  which  sustains  it,  and  which 
will  probably  be  as  durable  as  the  Republic  of  Letters. 
Dean  Berkeley,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Cloyne,  made 
very  liberal  donations  in  lands  and  books  to  the  col- 
lege. He  specially  appropriated  the  rents  and  profits 
of  a  farm  on  Rhode  Island,  to  the  regular  maintenance 
at  college  of  the  three  best  scholars  in  the  Greek  and 
Latin  languages,  for  a  portion  of  the  time  between  the 
taking  of  the  first  and  second  degrees,  and  the  surplus 
was  to  be  distributed  in  Greek  and  Latin  books  among 
the  best  of  the  undergraduates  in  Latin  composition. 
Bishop  Berkeley  was  in  many  respects  an  extraordina- 
ry man.  He  devoted  his  talents,  his  pen,  and  his  prop- 
erty to  promote  the  best  interests  of  mankind,  and  his 
name  ought  to  be  cherished  and  held  in  grateful  re- 
membrance by  all  the  friends  of  this  institution.  He 
carried  his  ingenious  and  sometimes  eccentric  specula- 
tions into  every  department  of  knowledge,  metaphysic- 
al, scientifical  and  practical.  His  romantic  and  enter- 
prising character,  his  learning  and  taste,  accompanied 
by  a  disposition  for  extended  and  active  benevolence, 
and  recommended  by  the  most  engaging  simplicity  of 
heart  and  purpose,  attracted  the  attention  and  engaged 
the  affections  of  his  contemporaries.  His  society  was 
courted  by  the  most  celebrated  wits  and  scholars  of  the 
Augustan  age  of  Queen  Anne,  and  he  took  an  honora- 


28 

ble  share  in  their  periodical  publications.  But  some 
of  his  noblest  efforts  and  most  generous  views  were  di- 
rected to  schemes  for  the  conversion  of  the  Indians  to 
Christianity,  and  the  promotion  of  learning  on  this  con- 
tinent. He  bestowed  much  time  and  zeal  on  the  pro- 
ject of  a  college  in  the  island  of  Bermuda  for  mission- 
ary and  literary  purposes.  This  plan,  as  well  as  the 
author  of  it,  was  pronounced  to  be  whimsical  by  the 
downright  and  sarcastic  Doctor  Douglass  in  his  His- 
torical and  Political  Summary  ;#  and  he  treats  this 
excellent  man  with  some  degree  of  severity,  and  prin- 
cipally, I  apprehend,  because  the  bishop  in  his  Treat- 
ise on  Tar  Water,  had  ventured  without  license  to  en- 
ter the  precincts  of  the  learned  doctor's  profession. 
We  of  this  age  have  not  much  concern  with  the  obso- 
lete physics  and  metaphysics  of  that  day,  but  the  no- 
ble acts  and  moral  worth  of  such  a  man  will  endure 
through  all  generations;  and  it  was  as  flattering  to 
this  college  as  it  was  honorable  to  Bishop  Berkeley, 
that  the  institution  in  its  then  infant  state,  should  have 
attracted  the  notice  of  a  stranger,  and  the  patronage  of 
a  scholar  of  such  various  endowments  and  distinguish- 
ed name.  He  has  left  us  the  grateful  evidence  on  rec- 
ord, that  he  saw  with  a  statesman's  eye  and  poet's  en- 
thusiasm, that  the  Ball  of  Empire  was  taking  a  west- 
ward course :  and  that  the  fifth  and  last  act  in  the 
great  drama  of  human  affairs,  and  Time's  last  and 
noblest  offspring,  were  to  be  exhibited  on  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic. 

In  1719,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cutler  was  chosen  rector,  and 
he  was  particularly  eminent  in  Hebrew  and  Arabic 

*  Douglass's  Summary,  Vol  I.  p.  149. 


29 

learning,  as  well  as  accomplished  in  the  various  branch- 
es of  literature  and  science,  and  in  thetdignity  of  his  de- 
portment and  manners.  After  he  had  relinquished  the 
trust,  he  received  the  highest  literary  honors  from  the 
English  universities,  to  which  his  great  learning  very 
justly  entitled  him.  His  successor,  the  Reverend  Mr. 
Williams  was  a  most  valuable  man,  and  displayed  his 
flexible  genius  and  eminent  capacity  in  distinct  and 
quite  opposite  departments  of  public  trust.  While  at 
the  head  of  this  college,  he  cherished  a  liberal  and  just 
taste  for  polite  learning,  and  his  classical  knowledge 
was  unquestionable,  for  he  spoke  Latin  freely,  and  de- 
livered orations  in  that  tongue  with  accuracy  and  ele- 
gance. The  accession  of  President  Clap  in  1739, 
formed  an  important  era  in  the  collegiate  annals.  He 
continued  to  preside,  first  as  rector  and  then  as  presi- 
dent for  twenty  six  years,  and  during  his  long  and  vig- 
orous administration,  the  college  rose  rapidly  in  im- 
portance, and  flourished  to  an  eminent  degree.  The 
powers  and  privileges  of  the  college  were  enlarged  by 
a  new  legislative  charter,  and  the  laws  were  remodelled, 
and  fresh  ardor  and  discipline  pervaded  the  institution. 
The  graduates  who  were  formed  under  President  Clap, 
contributed  largely  to  the  catalogue  of  distinguished 
names  in  public  trusts,  and  several  of  them  stand  con- 
spicuous on  the  bright  pages  of  our  revolution. 

President  Clap  was  not  eminent  for  classical  learn- 
ing, for  so  his  pupil  and  afterwards  his  illustrious  suc- 
cessor has  observed,  but  he  had  a  competent  knowledge 
of  the  three  learned  languages.  His  distinguished  skill 
and  learning  were  displayed  in  mathematical  studies 
and  in  natural  philosophy.  He  excelled  in  a  deep  and 
accurate  acquaintance  with  civil  and  ecclesiastical  his- 


30 

tory,  and  in  the  science  of  theology.  He  was  well  vers- 
ed in  the  knowledge  of  the  governments  and  policy  of 
nations,  and  what  may  be  thought  rather  singular  in 
a  divine  and  general  scholar,  (though  the  acquisition  is 
honorable  and  useful  to  either  character,)  he  was  well 
read  in  the  civil  and  canon  law,  and  in  the  municipal 
law  of  the  land.*  This  last  fact  was  strikingly  exem- 
plified in  a  memorable  case  which  occurred  in  the  year 
1763.  It  had  been  asserted  in  a  memorial  to  the  legis- 
lature of  Connecticut,  that  the  general  assembly,  by 
reason  of  their  charter  and  donations,  were  the  found- 
ers of  the  college,  and  had  a  right  by  the  common  law 
to  appoint  visitors.  The  president  opposed  this  preten- 
sion in  a  counter  memorial  and  argument  drawn  bold- 
ly, and  with  the  confidence  of  a  master,  from  his  own 
mental  resources.  He  grounded  himself  upon  English 
authorities  in  the  true  style  of  a  well-read  lawyer,  and 
successfully  contended  that  the  first  trustees  and  do- 
nors, prior  to  the  charter,  were  the  founders  and  lawful 
visitors,  and  that  the  right  of  visitation  passed  to  the 
trustees  under  the  charter,  and  then  resided  in  the 
president  and  fellows.  An  argument  of  such  solidity 
reminds  us  of  the  powerful  discussions  in  the  celebrated 
case  of  Dartmouth  College,  in  which  the  same  doc- 
trines were  advanced  and  sustained  by  the  decision  of 
the  supreme  court  of  the  United  States. 

The  presiding  magistrate  in  this,  and  in  all  other  In- 
stitutions, naturally  and  justly  attracts  the  largest 
share  of  public  attention,  for  he  holds  the  most  promi- 
nent station,  and  one  which  draws  to  it  the  most  weigh- 
ty responsibility.     But  the  Tutors,  in  every  period  of 

*  Holmes's  Life  of  President  Stiles,  Appendix,  p.  393. 


31 

the  College  history,  have  been  very  efficient  instruc- 
tors, and  though  many  of  them  may  have  been  at  the 
time  "  to  Fortune  and  to  Fame  unknown,"  yet  it  is  cer- 
tain that  the  College  has  been  much  indebted  for  the 
elevation  of  the  standard  of  moral  sentiment,  for  the 
cultivation  of  correct  taste,  and  for  the  formation  of 
some  of  the  most  illustrious  of  its  pupils,  to  the  diligent, 
steady,  painful  and  unobtrusive  counsels  and  efforts  of 
that  meritorious  class  of  teachers.  The  names  of 
Fisk,  Edwards,  Lyman,  Whittlesey,  Stiles,  Hillhouse, 
Baldwin,  Mitchell,*  Dwight  and  Goodrich  may  be  se- 
lected from  among  others,  (perhaps  their  equals)  as 
having  before  our  day,  sustained  in  the  character  of 
Tutors,  the  duties  of  the  College  trust,  with  equal  abil- 
ity and  dignity.  And  suffer  me  for  a  moment  to  bring 
to  recollection  from  among  this  class  of  men,  the  Rev- 
erend Ebenezer  Baldwin,  of  Danbury,  for  it  is  to  that 
great  and  excellent  man,  that  the  individual  who  has 
now  the  honor  to  address  you,  stands  indebted  for  the 
best  part  of  his  early  classical  instruction. 

Mr.  Baldwin  was  a  Tutor  in  this  College  for  the  pe- 
riod of  four  years,  and  he  settled  as  a  minister  in  the 
first  congregational  church  in  Danbury,  in  the  year 
1770.  He  was  a  scholar  and  a  gentleman,  of  the  fair- 
est and  brightest  hopes.  He  was  accustomed  to  read 
daily  a  portion  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  and  he  was 

*  Stephen  Mix  Mitchell,  the  tutor  here  alluded  to,  graduated  in  1763, 
and  was  a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court  of  Connecticut  in  1795  and 
Chief  Justice  in  1807.  He  continued  in  that  office  until  1814,  and  he 
11  living  at  the  age  of  87,  in  full  possession  of  his  faculties.  This 
venerable  and  distinguished  character,  continues  to  interest  all  his 
friend*  by  his  cheerfulness,  his  conversational  powers,  and  his  exhaust- 
less  fund  of  ancient  recollections. 


32 

extensively  acquainted  with  Greek  and  Roman  Litera- 
ture. 

His  style  of  preaching  was  simple,  earnest,  and  forci- 
ble, with  the  most  commanding,  and  the  most  grace- 
ful dignity  of  manner ;  and  if  I  can  trust  to  my  own 
memory,  he  was  pursuing  in  the  pulpit  a  steady,  me- 
thodical, and  comprehensive  view,  of  the  whole  system 
of  Christian  Theology.  His  zeal  for  learning  was  ar- 
dent, and  his  acquisitions  and  reputation  rapidly  in- 
creasing, when  he  was  doomed  to  fall  prematurely  in 
the  flower  of  his  age,  and  while  engaged  in  his  coun- 
try's service.  Though  his  career  was  painfully  short, 
he  had  lived  long  enough  to  attract  general  notice  and 
the  highest  respect,  by  his  piety,  his  learning,  his  judg- 
ment, and  his  patriotism.  Mr.  Baldwin  took  an  en- 
lightened and  active  interest  in  the  rise  and  early  pro- 
gress of  the  American  Revolution.  His  Thanksgiving 
Sermon,  in  the  autumn  of  1775,  was  so  excellent,  so  en- 
couraging, and  so  appropriate,  that  it  was  called  for 
and  printed  at  the  expense  of  a  leading  member  of  the 
Episcopal  Church,  and  it  now  remains  deposited 
among  the  documents  of  the  New  York  Historical  So- 
ciety. In  the  impending  and  gloomy  campaign  of 
1776,  he  was  incessant  in  his  efforts  to  cheer  and  ani- 
mate his  townsmen  to  join  the  militia,  which  were  call- 
ed out  for  the  defence  of  New  York.  To  give  weight 
to  his  eloquent  exhortations,  he  added  that  of  his  he- 
roic example.  He  went  voluntarily  as  a  Chaplain  to 
one  of  the  militia  regiments.  His  office  was  pacific, 
but  he  nevertheless  arrayed  himself  in  military  armor. 
I  was  present  when  he  firmly  and  cheerfully  bid  adieu 
to  his  devoted  parishioners,  and  affectionate  pupils. 
This  was  about  the  1st  of  August,  1776,  and  what  a 


33 

moment  in  the  annals  of  this  country  !  There  never 
was  a  period  more  awful  and  portentous.  It  was  the 
very  crisis  of  our  destiny.  No  occasion  could  have  af- 
forded better  proof,  or  a  more  unerring  test  of  a  pat- 
riot's zeal  and  magnanimous  devotion.  The  defence 
of  New  York  had  then  become  desperate.  An  ene- 
my's army  of  30,000  men,  well  disciplined  and  well 
equipped,  was  in  its  vicinity  ready  to  overwhelm  it. 
General  Washington  in  his  letter  to  congress  of  the 
3d  of  August,  stated,  that  his  army  fell  short  of  18,000 
men,  and  part  of  them  were  extremely  sickly,  and  that 
the  circumstances  around  him  were  melancholy  and  dis- 
tressing. Mr.  Baldwin  was  in  the  American  camp,  in 
the  suburbs  of  New  York,  when  the  British  army  land- 
ed on  Long  Island,  in  the  night  of  the  21st  of  August, 
and  I  heard  his  letter  read  at  the  time,  containing  the 
notice  of  that  event,  and  of  the  awful  thunder  storm 
which  accompanied  it,  and  hung  over  the  camp  for 
hours,  spreading  terror  and  death,  as  if  the  physical  as 
well  as  moral  elements  of  destruction  were  involv- 
ed in  angry  commotion.  Defeats,  retreats,  and  sick- 
ness disheartened  and  rapidly  reduced  and  dispersed 
our  little  army,  part  of  which  had  been  miserably 
equipped  and  wasted  by  disease,  even  from  the  begin- 
ning of  that  terrible  campaign.  The  thirteen  or  four- 
teen regiments  of  Connecticut  militia,  scantily  filled 
in  the  first  instance,  soon  became  fatally  reduced  by 
sickness,  insubordination,  and  impatience  under  the 
service ;  and  they  were  finally  discharged  on  the  24th 
of  September.  Mr.  Baldwin  full  a  victim  to  the  sick- 
ness that  prevailed  in  the  army,  and  he  had  only 
strength  sufficient  to  reach  home,  where  he  died  on  the 
1st  of  October,  1776,  at  the  age  of  32 ;  honored  by  the 

5 


34 

deepest  sympathies  of  his  own  people,  and  with  the 
public  veneration  and  sorrow. 

The  successor  to  President  Clap  was  the  Reverend 
Doctor  Daggett,  who  presided  as  head  of  the  col- 
lege for  eleven  years.  He  was  a  good  classical  scholar, 
and  well  read  in  Moral  Philosophy,  and  in  Theology, 
of  which  he  was  appointed  the  collegiate  Professor. 
The  proof  of  the  sound  state  of  instruction  and  disci- 
pline during  his  administration,  sufficiently  appears 
from  the  general  character  of  the  pupils,  many  of  whom 
rose  afterwards  to  great  eminence  in  Literature,  in 
professional  trusts,  and  in  the  public  councils  of  their 
country.  There  is  one  person  still  living  in  this  city, 
whose  education  is  to  be  referred  to  that  period,  and 
whose  Jiterary  eminence  will  warrant  a  particular  no- 
tice. For  nearly  half  a  century,  "  amidst  obstacles  and 
toils,  disappointments  and  infirmities,"  he  has  nobly 
sustained  his  courage ;  and  by  reason  of  his  extraordi- 
nary skill  and  industry  in  the  investigation  of  langua- 
ges, he  will  transmit  his  name  to  the  latest  posterity. 
It  will  dwell  on  the  tongues  of  infants,  as  soon  as  they 
have  learned  to  lisp  their  earliest  lessons.  It  will  be 
stamped  on  our  American  Literature,  and  be  carried 
with  it  over  every  part  of  this  mighty  continent.  It 
will  be  honored  by  three  hundred  millions  of  people,  for 
that  is  the  number  which,  it  is  computed,*  will  in  some 
future  age  occupy  the  wide  space  of  territory,  stretch- 
ing from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  ocean,  and  from  the 
Torrid  to  the  Arctic  Regions.  The  American  Dic- 
tionary of  the  English  Language,  is  a  work  of  pro- 
found investigation,  and  does  infinite  honor  to  the  phi- 

#  See  Preface  to  Webster'' s  Dictionary, 


35 

lological  learning  and  general  literature  of  this  country* 
Happy  the  man  who  can  thus  honorably  identify  his 
name  with  the  existence  of  our  vernacular  tongue. 
There  is  no  other  way  in  which  mortal  man  could  more 
effectually  secure  immortality  beneath  the  skies.  Obe- 
lisks, arches  and  triumphal  monuments,  seem  to  be  as 
transient  as  the  bubble  of  military  reputation.  No 
work  of  art  can  withstand  the  incessant  strokes  of  time* 
The  unrivalled  Parthenon,  glowing  in  polished  marble* 
and  which,  for  more  than  two  thousand  years  continu- 
ed from  the  summit  of  the  citadel  of  Athens,  to  cast  its 
broad  splendors  across  the  plains  below,  and  along  the 
coasts  and  headlands  of  Attica,  is  now  crumbling  to  ru- 
ins, after  being  despoiled  of  its  most  exquisite  materials 
by  savage  war  and  heartless  man.  Even  the  Pyramids 
of  Egypt  whose  origin  is  hidden  in  the  deepest  recesses 
of  antiquity,  and  which  have  always  stood  in  awe-inspir- 
ing solitude  and  grandeur,  are  now  annoyed  by  the  de- 
predations of  curiosity,,  and  greatly  corroded  by  the  ac- 
tion of  the  elements,  and  gradually  sinking  under  the 
encroaching  sands  of  the  desert.  This  Dictionary  and 
the  language  which  it  embodies,  will  also  perish ;  but 
it  will  not  be  with  the  gorgeous  palaces.  It  will  only 
go  with  the  solemn  temples  and  the  great  globe  itself. 
The  period  had  arrived  in  the  history  of  Ameri- 
ca, when  the  spirit  of  the  revolution,  began  to  be  sensi- 
bly felt,  and  to  exert  that  stirring  and  pervading  influ- 
ence, which  awakens  dormant  genius,  and  calls  all  the 
higher  and  nobler  faculties  of  the  soul  into  action.  In 
March,  1778,  the  Rev.  Doct.  Stiles  accepted  the  office 
of  president,  and  on  the  8th  day  of  July  following,  he 
was  inducted  into  office.  No  appointment  in  the  an- 
nals of  this  College,  had  raised  a  greater  scholar  to  the 


36 

chair,  nor  was  any  event  of  the  kind,  watched  with 
deeper  anxiety,  or  received  with  more  entire  satisfaction. 

President  Stiles  was  called  to  preside  over  the  col- 
lege, at  the  most  difficult  period  in  our  history,  and 
when  the  interests  of  learning  felt  the  shock  of  war  and 
invasion,  and  were  obliged  to  yield  for  a  season  to  the 
fury  of  the  tempest.  But  he  brought  with  him  to  the 
performance  of  his  high  trust,  a  mind  in  which  dwelt 
conscious  rectitude,  and  an  unshaken  confidence  in  the 
justice  and  success  of  the  American  cause,  and  in  the 
beneficent  Providence  of  God. 

While  he  was  discharging  the  duties  of  a  tutor,  Doct. 
Stiles  had  even  then  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
learned  and  the  wise,  by  his  active,  intelligent,  and 
manly  zeal  in  literary  and  philosophical  pursuits.  He 
was  exceedingly  fond  of  the  mathematics,  and  delighted 
in  illustrations  and  experiments  in  natural  philosophy. 
He  made  early  and  eminent  attainments  in  classical 
literature,  and  wrote  and  spoke  the  Latin  language  with 
the  beauty  and  elegance  of  a  scholar  of  the  Augustan 
age.  His  Latin  orations,  while  a  tutor,  in  honor  of  Gov- 
ernor Law,  of  Bishop  Berkeley,  and  of  Doctor  Frank- 
lin, were  spirited  and  eloquent  productions,  which  re- 
flected lustre  on  the  institution  to  which  he  belonged. 
In  the  latter  in  particular,  he  dwelt  with  a  fervor  of 
eloquence  which  his  genius  and  the  theme  equally  in- 
spired, on  the  splendid  discoveries  and  experiments  in 
electricity,  of  which  Doctor  Franklin  was  the  author, 
and  on  the  wonderful  control  of  that  tremendous  agent 
in  nature,  by  means  of  the  metallic  conductor.*     The 

*  See  an  extract  from  this  oration  in  the  Life  of  President  Stiles, 
by  the  Rev.  Doct.. Holmes,  his  son  in  law;  a  biographical  work  of 
much  interest,  ancfrexecuted  with  judgment  and  taste,  and  with  a  filial 
reverence  and  devotion  due  to  the  dignity  of  the  subject. 


37 

oration  was  pronounced  in  the  year  1755,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  Doctor  Franklin  himself,  who  was  styled  the 
prince  of  philosophers,  but  he  then  fell  far  short  of  the 
full  measure  of  his  glory.  Though  he  had  snatched 
the  lightning  from  tJie  skies,  he  had  not  yet  wrested 
the  sceptre  from  tyrants. 

Dr.  Stiles  was  for  some  time  engaged  in  the  study  of 
the  law,  and  it  was  during  that  period  that  he  directed 
his  rapid  and  comprehensive  mind  to  the  subject  of  the 
Roman  and  the  English  common  law;  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  law  of  nature  and  nations,  and  to  enlarged  views 
of  the  governments,  policy,  and  intercourse  of  mankind. 
This  noblest  of  all  secular  studies,  must  have  had  a 
very  beneficial  influence  on  the  future  expansion  of  his 
mind,  and  have  given  him  an  insight  into  the  practical 
principles  of  government,  property,  and  jurisprudence, 
which  constitute  the  foundation  of  all  rational  free- 
dom. But  he  soon  reassumed  the  duties  of  a  preacher 
of  the  gospel,  and  it  was  to  that  profession  that  he  was 
unshakingly  devoted  for  the  remainder  of  his  life,  and 
with  a  zeal  and  energy  that  naturally  excite  our  admi- 
ration, when  we  consider  that  he  was  at  the  same  time 
a  universal  scholar,  and  bestowed  extraordinary  activi- 
ty on  various  literary  pursuits.  His  social  disposition, 
and  enterprising  spirit  of  inquiry,  led  him  to  cultivate 
an  epistolary  correspondence,  in  Latin,  with  eminent 
scholars  throughout  the  world,  on  topics  connected  with 
the  history  of  mankind,  and  with  an  ultimate  view  to 
the  more  solid  establishment  of  christian  truth.  His 
researches  extended  to  the  migration  and  colonization 
of  nations,  and  to  the  historical,  geographical  and  phi- 
lological discoveries  connected  with  the  most  ancient 
people.     He  sought  very  early  from  the  Jesuits'  college, 


in  Mexico,  and  from  learned  men  in  Europe,  informa- 
tion as  to  the  discoveries  on  the  north  west  coast  of 
America.  He  interrogated  the  Greek  clergy,  in  Syria, 
concerning  the  geography,  governments,  religion,  rites, 
customs  and  literature  of  the  tribes  in  the  Holy  Land, 
and  Syria,  and  contiguous  to  the  Caspian  sea,  and  with 
the  primary  object  of  the  further  elucidation  of  the 
Jewish  history.  He  addressed  similar  inquiries  to  Mr. 
Holwell  and  Sir  William  Jones  respecting  the  Hindoos 
and  the  Jews  in  Eastern  Asia ;  and  his  questions  were 
well  calculated  to  surprize  the  foreign  Literati  to 
whom  they  were  addressed,  at  the  depth  of  the  knowl- 
edge, and  the  ardor  and  acuteness  of  the  research  which 
his  interrogatories  implied. 

This  indefatigable  scholar  wrote  and  taught  the  He- 
brew language  with  great  facility.  He  learned  the  Sy- 
riac,  and  read  the  Scriptures  equally  in  the  Hebrew, 
Greek  and  Syriac  tongues.  He  made  considerable 
progress  in  the  Arabic,  Persic  and  Coptic  Languages, 
and  his  knowledge  in  oriental  Philology,  History  and 
Antiquities  was  very  extraordinary,  and  most  honorable 
to  this  country ;  and  especially  when  we  consider  that 
this  humble  minister  of  the  gospel,  ascended  these  lofty 
heights  of  scholarship  before  the  American  war,  when 
intercourse  was  difficult,  and  stimulus  feeble,  and  helps 
at  a  distance,  and  when  he  had  to  rely  on  his  own  un- 
assisted exertions. 

His  favorite  philosophical  study  was  the  sublime 
science  of  Astronomy.  He  compiled  a  quarto  volume 
on  the  observations  and  calculations  connected  with  the 
transit  of  Venus  in  1769.  He  saw,  as  he  himself  in- 
forms us,#  with  incredible  pleasure,  with  the  greatest 

#  Or  alio  inauguralis,  1778. 


39 

admiration,  and  with  the  most  extatic  joy,  the  planet 
Venus  enter  upon  the  sun's  disk,  at  the  very  instant  of 
time,  predicted  a  hundred  years  before.  This  over- 
whelming fact,  and  the  infinite  grandeur  and  immen- 
sity of  the  stellary  universe,  into  which  he  delighted  to 
be  borne  on  the  wings  of  his  imagination,  affected  him 
equally  with  profound  humility  and  glowing  devotion, 
when  he  came  to  reflect  upon  the  unerring  laws  and 
harmony  of  the  planetary  system,  and  on  the  Almighty 
power  and  wisdom,  which  created  and  sustained  those 
laws. 

At  the  inauguration  of  President  Stiles  as  head  of 
the  College,  he  delivered  a  Latin  oration,  at  which  I 
was  present  as  the  youngest  of  all  his  pupils.  It  was 
delivered  with  great  animation,  and  contained  a  short 
but  brilliant  sketch  of  the  entire  circle  of  the  arts  and 
sciences ;  and  no  single  production  of  his  pen  exhibits 
so  complete  a  specimen  of  the  extent  and  variety  of  his 
mental  accomplishments.  While  it  was  his  earnest  de- 
sire that  the  beloved  sons  of  the  muses  might  leave  the 
institution  enriched  with  erudition,  and  fitted  by  the 
discipline  of  their  faculties  to  ascend  to  those  high  dis- 
tinctions which  our  young  republics  were  then  opening 
to  their  view;  he  at  the  same  time  assured  them  that  a 
college  education  was  only  passing  the  vestibule  of  the 
temple  of  knowledge,  and  that  it  would  require  ulterior 
and  incessant  diligence  to  attain  the  moral  force,  the 
practical  usefulness,  and  the  lasting  honors  of  thorough 
and  finished  scholars.  The  war  was  then  raging  in  our 
land  with  unrelenting  fierceness,  and  it  was  extremely 
unfavorable  to  pacific  and  literary  pursuits.  Though 
the  President  took  occasion  to  congratulate  his  audi- 
ence on  the  re-organization  of  the  College  after  a  long 


40 

dispersion,  yet  the  season  of  distress  was  not  closed. 
The  College  was  again  dispersed  in  July,  1779,  by  a 
large  detachment  of  British  troops,  under  the  command 
of  Major  General  Tryon,  which  made  a  descent  upon 
this  city  in  mere  wantonness,  and  without  any  just  mili- 
tary object.  Their  virulence  increased  as  they  contin- 
ued their  depredations  along  the  coast,  and  they  de- 
stroyed the  quiet  and  beautiful  towns  of  Fairfield  and 
Norwalk,  and  the  village  of  Green's  Farms,  under  cir- 
cumstances of  the  most  unmitigated  barbarity.* 
il_ 

*  I  was  at  New  Haven,  and  saw  the  British  troops  in  the  act  of 
landing  at  West  Haven,  early  on  the  morning  of  the  5th  July,  1779. 
James  Hillhouse,  who  graduated  in  1773,  and  was  in  subsequent 
life  a  Senator  in  Congress  from  Connecticut,  and  Treasurer,  and 
Commissioner  of  the  State  School  Fund,  and  who  still  lives  as 
venerable  for  his  moral  worth  and  goodness,  as  he  has  through  life 
been  admired  for  zealous,  judicious,  and  disinterested  public  servi- 
ces, commanded  on  that  day  the  2d  Company  of  the  Governor's 
Foot  Guards.  By  their  prompt  co-operation  with  the  militia  and 
volunteers  (among  whom  may  be  included  the  former  President  Dag- 
gett, who  fought,  was  wounded,  taken  prisoner,  and  maltreated,)  the 
British  troops  were  compelled  to  take  a  circuitous  route  of  nine 
miles  before  they  could  enter  and  plunder  the  town.  The  next  day 
I  went  from  the  country  north  of  New  Haven  to  Green's  Farms,  a  vil- 
lage west  of  Fairfield,  and  slept  under  my  father's  roof.  On  Wednes- 
day morning  July  7th,  the  British  fleet  were  anchored  off  Fairfield. 
I  saw  the  British  troops  land  there  in  the  course  of  the  day.  That 
evening  and  the  next  morning  they  burnt  the  town  and  destroyed, 
among  other  property,  a  court  house,  two  churches  and  eighty  five 
dwelling  houses.  It  is  a  little  singular,  that  the  destruction  at  the  same 
time  of  the  village  of  Green's  Farms,  should  have  been  entirely  over- 
looked by  most  of  the  contemporary  writers.  The  Rev.  Andrew  Eliot 
of  Fairfield  in  a  letter  which  he  wrote  on  the  15th  of  July,  1779,  gives 
a  very  minute  account  of  the  destruction  of  Fairfield,  and  takes  no  no- 
tice of  the  burning  of  Green's  Farms.  (Mass.  Hist.  Collcc.  Vol.  III. 
p.  103)     So  Doct  Dwigftt  in  his  Greenfield  Hill,  bestows  a  part  of 


41 

The  country  was  so  unsettled  and  disturbed  from 
1776  to  1781,  and  the  means  of  subsistence  were  so 
difficult,  that  the  College  was  not  open  and  in  regular 
exercise  more  than  half  the  usual  time.  But  even  the 
collegiate  terms,  broken  and  interrupted  as  they  were, 
proved  sufficient  to  give  the  students  a  taste  for  clas- 
sical learning  and  philosophical  science,  and  to  teach 
them  how  to  cultivate  their  owpt  resources  in  the  vari- 
ous pursuits  and  duties  of  lifejf  President  Stiles's  zeal 
for  civil  and  religious  liberty  was  kindled  at  the  altar 
of  the  English  and  New  England  Puritans,  and  it  was 
animating  and  vivid.     A  more  constant  and  devoted 


his  poem  to  the  event  of  the  burning  of  Fairfield,  and  takes  no  notice 
any  where  in  his  notes,  of  the  destruction  of  Green's  Farms,  though 
the  latter  village  lay,  as  he  says  Fairfield  did,  "in  full  view."  It  is 
certain  however,  (and  I  was  an  eye  witness  to  the  fact,)  that  the  British 
incendiaries,  on  the  morning  of  the  8th  of  July,  swept  along  over  the 
village  of  Green's  Farms,  and  destroyed  all  the  houses  for  near  a  mile 
in  succession  ;  and  among  others  the  house  where  I  had  slept  on  the 
Tuesday  evening  preceding,  and  the  house  of  the  Rev.  Doct.  Ripley, 
and  the  meeting  house  in  which  that  excellent  man  used  to  preach. 
If  he  still  lives,  as  I  believe  he  does,  he  is  among  the  oldest  of  the 
Connecticut  clergy,  for  he  graduated  in  the  year  1763,  and  I  beg  leave 
to  state  that  I  have  not  lost  for  him,  a  particle  of  my  early  reverence. 
On  Saturday  evening,  July  10th,  I  was  in  the  vicinity  of  Norwalk,  and 
was  aroused  the  next  morning  by  the  cannonade  and  conflagration  of 
that  town,  consisting  of  two  churches  and  one  hundred  and  twenty 
three  houses,  stores  and  mills.  Among  the  houses  destroyed,  was 
that  of  my  maternal  grand  parents,  and  in  which  I  had  lived  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  first  eight  years  of  my  life.  Even  the  humble 
school  house  was  not  spared,  in  which  I  had  learned  my  earliest  les- 
sons, and  been  obliged  often  to  tremble  at  the  sight  of  the  truant  sub- 
mitting to  the  stern  but  wholesome  discipline  of  that  day.  It  is  no 
wonder  if  I  should  feel,  even  at  this  remote  time,  some  emotions  of 
indignation  at  the  recollection  of  those  transactions. 

6 


42 

I  friend  to  the  Revolution  and  independence  of  this  coun- 
\  try  never  existed.     He  had  anticipated  it  as  early  as 
I  the  year  1760,  and  his  whole  soul  was  enlisted  in  favor 
i  of  every  measure  which  led  on  gradually  to  the  forma- 
■  tion  and  establishment  of  the  American  Union.     The 
frequent  appeals  which  he  was  accustomed  to  make  to 
the  heads  and  hearts  of  his  pupils,  concerning  the  slip- 
pery paths  of  youth,  the  grave  duties  of  life,  the  respon- 
sibilities of  man,  and  the  perils,  and  hopes,  and  honors, 
and  destiny  of  our  country,  will  never  be  forgotten  by 
those  who  heard  them ;  and  especially  when  he  came 
to  touch,  as  he  often  did,  with  "  a  master's  hand  and 
prophet's  fire,"  on  the  bright  vision  of  the  future  pros- 
perity and  splendor  of  the  United  States. 

Towards  the  conclusion  of  his  life,  President  Stiles 
wrote  and  published  his  History  of  three  of  the  Judges 
of  King  Charles  /.,  and  this  work  contains  proof  that 
the  author's  devotion  to  civil  and  religious  liberty  car- 
ried him  forward  to  some  hasty  conclusions ;  in  like 
manner  as  his  fondness  for  antiquarian  researches  tend- 
ed to  lead  his  mind  to  credulous  excesses.  He  dwells 
on  trifling  traditionary  details  on  a  very  unimportant 
inquiry,  but  the  volume  also  contains  a  dissertation  on 
republican  polity,  and  his  vindication  of  the  resistance 
of  the  long  Parliament  to  King  Charles  I.,  and  of  the 
judicial  trial  and  condemnation  of  that  monarch.  Here 
he  rises  into  a  theme  of  the  loftiest  import,  and  dis- 
cusses it  with  his  usual  boldness,  fervor,  acuteness  and 
copiousness  of  erudition.  He  takes  occasion  to  con- 
demn all  hereditary  orders  in  government,  as  being  in- 
compatible with  public  virtue  and  security ;  and  he 
was  of  opinion  that  monarchy  and  aristocracy,  with  all 
their  exclusive  political  appendages,  were  going  fast 


43 

into  discredit  and  disuse,  under  the  influence  of  more 
just  and  enlightened  notions  of  the  natural  equality  and 
liberties  of  mankind.  In  these  opinions  the  President 
did  no  more  than  adopt  and  declare  the  principles  of 
the  most  illustrious  of  the  English  Puritans  under  the 
Stuarts,  and  of  many,  at  least,  of  the  English  Protest- 
ant Dissenters  under  the  Brunswick  line.  His  funda- 
mental doctrine,  that  a  nation  may  bring  to  trial  and 
punishment  delinquent  kings,  is  undoubtedly  true  as  an 
abstract  proposition,  though  the  right  is  difficult  to  de- 
fine and  dangerous  in  the  application.  This  humble 
little  volume  was  dedicated  to  the  patrons  of  unpollu- 
ted liberty,  cicil  and  religious,  throughout  the  icorld; 
and  when  we  consider  its  subject,  its  republicanism,  its 
spirit,  its  frankness,  its  piety,  its  style  and  its  tact,  we 
are  almost  led  to  believe  that  we  are  perusing  the  lega- 
cy of  the  last  of  the  Puritans.  He  gives  us  also  a  con- 
spectus or  plan  of  an  ideal  commonwealth,  and  it  is  far 
superior  to  the  schemes  sketched  by  Harrington,  or  Mil- 
ton, or  Locke,  or  Hume,  or  to  any  other  plan  of  a  repub- 
lic prior  to  the  establishment  of  our  own  American  con- 
stitutions. It  is  very  much  upon  the  model  of  some  of 
the  best  of  them,  and  though  entire  political  equality 
and  universal  suffrage  were  the  basis  of  his  plan,  he  was 
fully  aware  of  the  dangerous  propensities  to  which  they 
might  expose  us,  and  therefore  he  checked  the  rapidity 
of  his  machine  by  a  Legislature  of  two  Houses  chosen, 
the  one  for  three  and  the  other  for  six  years,  and  by  a 
single  Executive  chosen  for  seven  years,  and  by  an  in- 
dependent Judiciary.  In  addition  to  all  these  guards, 
he  insisted  on  the  necessity  of  a  general  diffusion  of  light 
and  knowledge,  and  of  the  recognition  of  Christianity, 


44 

But  my  object  is  not  to  discuss  the  merits  of  Presi- 
dent Stiles's  Utopia,  and  I  have  only  alluded  to  the  sub- 
ject as  affording  another  signal  proof  of  the  fertility  and 
boldness  of  his  active  mind.  Take  him  for  all  in  all, 
this  extraordinary  man  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  pur- 
est and  best  gifted  men  of  his  age.  In  addition  to  his 
other  eminent  attainments  he  was  clothed  with  humili- 
ty, with  tenderness  of  heart,  with  disinterested  kindness, 
and  with  the  most  artless  simplicity.  He  was  distin- 
guished for  the  dignity  of  his  deportment,  the  polite- 
ness of  his  address  and  the  urbanity  of  his  manners. 
Though  he  was  uncompromising  in  his  belief  and  vin- 
dication of  the  great  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Pro- 
testant faith,  he  was  nevertheless  of  a  most  charitable 
and  catholic  temper,  resulting  equally  from  the  benev- 
olence of  his  disposition  and  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel. 

Upon  the  death  of  President  Stiles,  near  the  close  of 
the  last  century,  his  place  was  supplied  by  the  Rev. 
Doct.  Dwight,  who  presided  over  the  College  for  up- 
wards of  twenty  years,  with  distinguished  reputation. 
It  would  carry  me  beyond  the  limits  assigned  to  this 
discourse,  to  dwell  on  the  literary  history  of  that  great 
man.  He  most  deservedly  filled  a  large  space  in  the 
public  eye,  by  his  talents,  his  learning,  his  imagination, 
his  taste,  his  industry,  his  powers  of  conversation,  his 
controlling  eloquence,  his  ardent  piety,  his  paternal 
manners,  and  the  purity,  simplicity  and  dignity  of  his 
character.  He  has  done  more  than  any  other  person 
to  explain  and  recommend  to  the  respect  of  mankind, 
the  wisdom  of  the  institutions  of  New  England,  and  the 
progress  of  her  settlements,  her  geography,  her  history, 
her  biography,  and  the  intelligent,  moral  and  religious 
character  of  her  people.     He  has  done  more  than  any 


45 

other  American  Divine  to  "justify  the  ways  of  God  to 
man"  from  the  creation  to  the  consummation  of  all 
things,  by  a  system  of  Theology  profoundly  digested, 
and  equally  perfect  in  the  grandeur  of  the  plan,  and  in 
the  unwearied  skill  and  completeness  of  the  execution. 
But  here  I  must  drop  the  thread  of  this  narration.  My 
intention  was  not  to  pass  the  period  of  the  last  century, 
but  to  dwell  principally  on  distant  recollections.  There 
is  much  pleasure  in  recalling  to  view  the  living  picture 
of  the  sports  and  joys  of  youth,  in  its  original  freshness 
of  coloring  and  intensity  of  action.  There  is  a  still  high- 
er delight  in  recounting  the  manly  pursuits,  the  gener- 
ous emulation,  the  exciting  discoveries  and  the  ingen- 
uous attachments  which  gave  life  and  vigor  to  the  col- 
legiate circle.  But  in  my  case,  the  vision  is  shaded  and 
the  charm  dissolved,  by  the  intrusion  of  one  stern  real- 
ity. The  generation  which  I  knew  at  college  has  pass- 
ed away  and  given  place  to  another.  Star  after  star 
has  fallen  from  its  sphere.  A  few  bright  lights  are  still 
visible,  but  the  constellation  itself  has  become  dim,  and 
almost  ceases  to  shed  its  radiance  around  me.*     What 


*  Of  my  college  class,  which  graduated  in  1781,  and  consisted  of 
twenty  seven,  there  are  twelve  still  living  in  good  health,  and  eight 
of  them  attended  this  commencement.  Of  those  eight  persons,  four 
had  not  until  then,  seen  each  other  for  fifty  years.  Of  the  students 
who  were  in  college  during  the  whole  or  some  part  of  the  period  in 
which  I  was  there,  and  who  in  after  life  attained  distinguished  public 
honors  by  their  talents  and  learning,  and  are  now  dead,  may  be  se- 
lected 

Joel  Barlow,  the  author  of  the  Vision  of  Columbus,  and  American 
Minister  in  Europe. 

Stephen  Jacob,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Vermont. 

Josiah  Meigs,  President  of  the  University  of  Georgia. 

Asker  Miller,  a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court  of  Connecticut. 


46 

severe  lessons  of  mortality,  such  a  retrospect  teaches ! 
What  a  startling  rebuke  to  human  pride !  How  brief 
the  drama !  How  insignificant  the  honors,  and  "  fiery 
chase  of  ambition,"  except  as  mental  discipline  for  be- 
ings destined  for  immortality ! 

Within  the  last  half  century  this  college  has  partaken 
largely  of  the  general  impulse  communicated  to  socie- 
ty. It  has  made  rapid  advances  in  the  number  of  its 
pupils,  in  the  elevation  of  the  standard  of  admission,  in 
the  enlargement  of  the  limits  of  collegiate  learning,  and 

Noah  Smith,  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Vermont. 

Zephaniah  Swift,  author  of  a  Digest  of  the  Laws  of  Connecticut, 
and  Chief  Justice  of  that  State. 

Uriah  Tracy,  Senator  in  Congress  from  Connecticut. 

Mason  Fitch  Cogswell,  President  of  the  Medical  Society  of  Con- 
necticut. 

Roger  Griswold,  Governor  of  the  State  of  Connecticut. 

Daniel  Farrand,  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Vermont. 

Israel  Smith,  Governor  of  the  State  of  Vermont. 

John  Lovett,  Member  of  Congress  from  New  York. 

Samuel  Austin,  President  of  the  University  of  Vermont. 

Josiah  Masters,  Member  of  Congress  from  New  York. 

Jedediah  Morse,  author  of  the  American  Geography. 

George  Bliss,  a  distinguished  Jurist  and  first  Judge  of  the  County 
of  Hampden  in  Massachusetts. 

Among  the  scholars  embraced  in  the  period  I  have  mentioned,  and 
still  living,  and  who  have  been  selected  to  high  public  trusts,  or 
been  pre-eminently  distinguished  for  their  literary  productions,  are 
the  names  of 

Ezekiel  Gilbert,  Member  of  Congress. 

Ebenezer  Sage,  Member  of  Congress. 

Noah  Webster,  author  of  the  American  Dictionary. 

Oliver  Wolcott,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  of  U.  S. ;  a  Judge,  and 
Governor  of  Connecticut. 

Jonathan  Brace,  Member  of  Congress. 

Elizur  Goodrich,  Member  of  Congress  and  Professor  of  Law. 

Jonathan  Ogden  Moseley,  Member  of  Congress. 


47 

in  accommodating  its  course  of  instruction  to  the  wants 
and  wishes  of  the  age,  and  to  the  methods  and  spirit  of 
the  sciences  of  the  present  day.  The  amount  of  grad- 
uates, since  the  commencement  of  this  century,  almost 
equals  the  number  that  received  a  collegiate  degree 
during  the  whole  course  of  that  which  proceeded  it. 
History,  antiquities  and  political  economy  are  now  ac- 
ademically taught.  Chemistry,  mineralogy,  and  geol- 
ogy were  utterly  unknown,  within  college  walls,  half  a 
century  ago.  They  are  now  regarded  as  sciences  of 
great  practical  utility,  and,  under  the  guidance  of  gen- 

Simeon  Baldwin,  Member  of  Congress  and  Judge  of  the  Superior 
Court  of  Connecticut. 

Stephen  Titus  Hosmer,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Sup.  Court  of  Con- 
necticut. 

Asher  Robbins,  Senator  in  Congress. 

Lewis  Burr  Sturges,  Member  of  Congress. 

David  Daggett,  Senator  in  Congress,  Judge  of  the  Sup.  Court  of 
Connecticut,  Professor  of  Law. 

Abiel  Holmes,  author  of  American  Annals. 

John  Cotton  Smith,  Member  of  Congress,  Judge  of  the  Sup.  Court 
of  Connecticut,  Governor  of  that  State,  President  of  the  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions. 

Ray  Greene,  Senator  in  Congress. 

The  college,  and  even  the  State  and  nation,  have  reason  to  be  proud 
of  such  a  roll  of  illustrious  names.  The  individuals  were  nurtured 
amidst  the  excitements  and  tumult  of  the  American  war.  There  were 
other  scholars  educated  within  that  period,  who  proved  to  be  men  of 
sound  learning  and  sterling  worth,  without  having  attracted  attention 
by  their  ardent  ambition  or  proud  elevation.  They  have  been  con- 
tented to  pass  down  the  stream  of  life  in  a  gentle  current,  without 
noise  or  eclat.  But  in  the  various  walks  of  private  life,  and  in  the 
discharge  of  the  more  quiet  duties  of  professional  employment,  or  as 
humble  and  devoted  ministers  of  the  gospel,  they  have  been  of  great 
utility,  and  the  source  of  inestimable  blessings  diffused  around  the 
sphere  in  which  they  have  moved. 


48 

ius*  erudition  and  taste,  they  are  cultivated  with  en- 
thusiastic ardor  and  astonishing  success.  The  prog- 
ress of  science  generally  within  the  time  of  memory  is 
almost  incalculable,  and  it  seems  to  leave  in  compara- 
tive insignificance,  the  accumulated  knowledge  of  past 
ages.  We  can  estimate  the  space  that  has  been  gained 
by  the  flood,  by  looking  upon  those  neglected  marks, — 
those  old  and  stubborn  intellectual  monuments,  which 
remained  stationary,  in  proud  solitude,  while  the  cur- 
rent swept  forward  on  its  course.  It  is  the  tendency  of 
the  general  diffusion  of  knowledge,  and  of  the  inquisi- 
tive, restless,  and  business  character  of  the  age,  to  ele- 
vate the  importance  of  that  mechanical  philosophy  and 
of  those  practical  sciences,  which  gratify  with  the 
greatest  celerity,  and  in  the  greatest  abundance,  our 
coarser  wants  and  comforts.  But  we  may  rest  assured 
that  the  efficacy  and  value  of  intellectual  pursuits  in- 
creases in  a  much  greater  proportion.  Artificial  dis- 
tinctions and  exclusive  privileges  are  gradually  losing 
their  hold  on  society,  by  the  operation  of  the  knowedge 
and  spirit  of  the  times.  The  masses  of  free  and  en- 
lightened human  beings  are  constantly  enlarging,  and 
they  all  lie  under  the  dominion  of  moral  force,  and  are 
capable  of  being  swayed  by  argument  and  eloquence 
flowing  from  intellects  of  superior  cultivation.  Knowl- 
edge and  virtue  are  the  rightful  directors  of  human  ac- 
tion, and  they  are  a  result  of  a  liberal  and  vigorous 
system  of  public  education. 

It  must  be  the  wish  of  all  the  true  sons  of  this  vene- 
rable university,  that  it  may  fulfil  its  high  purpose,  and 
continue  to  flourish  in  health  and  vigor,  with  expand- 
ing views,  and  increasing  lustre,  down  to  the  latest 
posterity. 


M219171 


l  nr 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


k 


